Nirk, can you tell us about the reception formation of Münster? I suppose the Opps played as receivers (because otherwise it would make no sense at all to use Bathen as Opp), so did one of the OHs not receive at all or did they share reception duties?
By the way, I recently read in some article that Axel Büring said that Ines Bathen is fighting "with hands and feet" against losing her place in first six 
Good attitude!
Matthias, what do you think, who is the main favorite for the league championschips ?
Good question 
Dresden has the deepest roster, Schwerin will definitely be strong too...but the season is long and so much can happen, the most interesting thing is that there are no weak teams this season, so even in playoffs there might be big surprises.
Im not Matt but hopefully its ok I give it
No, when I am asked, I want to answer 
I will also update results and stats here in the forum as in the past seasons.
Münster played a friendly match against Hamburg today and won 4:0 (25:19, 25:14, 25:22, 25:14). It was planned they'd play against VDK Gent, but they withdrew yesterday because of injuries and illnesses of some players, but Hamburg was ready to replace them. Axel Büring says that the result should not be overrated because Münster prepared like for a normal match while it came as a surprise to Hamburg that they'll play today so they had different training.
...and apparently, there were also player awards (from Aachen website):
Best blocker: Anke Borowikow
Best libero: Paulina Biranowska
Best spiker and MVP: Karine Muijlwijk
Pesaro signed Kenny Moreno Pino as replacement for Serena Ortolani
It should include ball touches because that's where most mistakes happen!!! It would be so typically FIVB to leave the main source of referee errors untouched to protect the referees 
But maybe it's included in ball in/out decisions...
I don't think anybody will challenge serve/3m line violations, they're usually correct, it would be interesting to know if this also includes not-calls (i.e. if referees miss a line violation).
As far as I remember, when CEV tested the system during men CL F4 this year, there was no limit about to which rules it could be applied.
Does anyone know where Ostojic played last season?
In 2010/11, she played in Germany for VfB Suhl, but I have not been able to find out where she was last season...
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InterestingSo, they will change their system a bit.
Some questions:
1. Who will be the receiving Opp ??
2. Will Sloetjes play as non-receiving OH or receiving OH? (She started to play receiving OH in NT, this summer)
3. Will Cutura play as non-receiving or receiving OH?
4. Last year Sloetjes played as a 'real' opposite (non-receiving) and Cutura as non-receiving OH, right? (Dörendahl (L) and Bathen (OH) were the receiving duo)
The article says Sloetjes will play "Annahme-Außen" (so with reception) in NT, and Axel Büring says in the new system, the Opp will take the main responsibility in reception, and since Sarah Petrausch is listed as Opp on Münster's website and also in that article (by the way, source), I guess she is planned as receiving Opp, probably with Ines Bathen as backup. I don't expect them to play with 2 player reception again, so I guess Sloetjes and Cutura will share the 3rd reception position, maybe depending on the various rotations (maybe the one in backrow receives and the one at the net does not to be free for attack or something like that). Last season, Cutura sometimes entered the reception formation against hard jump serves that you cannot receive with only two people or when Bathen-Dörendahl duo had problems to cover the whole court alone.
EDIT: I just read the article again, and what Axel Büring exactly says is: "the Opposites will have to get used to take the most responsibility in reception in future", that might also mean that Sloetjes as ex-Opp will now be a main receiver...it could mean both ways, this or what I explained above.
Nice
It sure did, it's very difficult in Berlin to get the people into the hall because there are so many high level teams from different sports, so I hope the girls were successful with this event. They also had a nice photo shooting, some impressions here.
Photographers seem to like Leszczynska best But the photo of Guimond and Pavan is quite funny 
Lonneke Sloetjes will play as OH in Münster this season and Axel Büring wants to play with a receiving Opp...
Severstal's defense is out of this world!!!
No. It's "Alaybeg". I guess there's confusion because Russians often transliterate "ж" as "j", so in this case, the opposite happened.
Thanks, that's what I thought...it's even wrong on her shirt
The difference is that Severstal plays much more as a team than Krasnodar. In 1st set their game was too much centered around Vesovic but in 2nd set Matienko varied the game much better. For Krasnodar, only Hooker scores reliably, Havelkova and Scherban are quite weak so far. I won't be able to watch until the end, but I hope Severstal can keep playing like this, it might be a good wake up call for Krasnodar early in the season.
As Anton already said, Krasnodar looks shaky, and even more so in 2nd set, while Severstal plays surprisingly well. Is their coach Perepelkina's husband? If Kutyukova always plays like this, maybe she could be a candidate for NT...
Is Alajbeg really pronounced as "Alazhbeg"? 
Nice ending at 1st set, but what a terrible mistake by Severstal at 26-26 
This is probably the most "normal" hairstyle I've ever seen on Matienko
A team from German local TV accompanied Aachen's team to Turkey and now they showed some scenes from the tournament (starting at 5'30):
Potsdam's Czech MB Nikol Sajdova has a small fracture in her foot and will be out at least 4 weeks. Also Josi Dörfler has an ankle injury since some time.
Trouble also in Vilsbiburg: the sick players have recovered, but Adriana dos Santos still has many problems with her knees, and now it looks like she already had that before she came to Vilsbiburg but did not inform the club about it. They will wait for the results of another medical check-up and then decide what to do, they are "not amused" with the situation.
Aachen's captain Karolina Bednarova said on a TV show that the team was struck by a stomach virus during Dippold-Turnier, several players and the head coach got sick so they could not play as they wanted to. The video also shows some scenes from the tournament Aachen played in Turkey...
Thanks for your replies I don't like it when clubs sign players and then change their mind, they should try them out first before making a contract, even when it's a star player like Sykora. I guess after her accident in Brazil she's simply not the same as before 
Volleyball.it reports that Urbino signed Italian libero Antonietta Vallese instead of Sykora ("al posto di Sykora"), so does this mean Sykora will not play there?? 
After Crisanti's injury, this would be another blow for the team.
This seems to be a list of the broadcasts until the end of the year: http://www.dvl-live.tv/live-termine
DVL says that this list is not complete yet, some more matches will be included as soon as the broadcasting is 100% sure, for example between 21 October and 10 November will be broadcasts too.
Schwerin had a season opening press conference today, but as usual, the info from that is very thin 
They say Champions League costs them between 150.000-180.000 €, depending on the final travel costs. Kazan will be the strongest opponent, Constanta is on the same level as Schwerin and they hope for a surprise against Urbino (but considering Urbino's roster, Schwerin might really have a chance to steal points from them). There is no info about further transfers...the official roster on Schwerin's site contains 11 players (including the youngsters Wiebke Offer and Lisa Stein, so only 9 "professional" players), Paty Thormann is not included so I expect her not to play at all next season...nothing official yet though 
Köpenick players did a show training in front of Brandenburger Tor today: Photos Video
New interview with Piccinini: http://www.volleyball.it/notizie.asp?n=50781&l=0
The main points:
- In 2011, when she was not feeling well in summer, NT doctor checked her and said everything was alright, then when she came back to Bergamo she was checked by another doctor and it turned out that she had serious problems with her thyroid which were the reason for her illness. She missed World Cup because of it and nobody from Italy NT cared about her health and she says that Lo Bianco accused her that she missed World Cup out of self-interest...
- This year, she did everything to make it to the Olympics, she accepted training with the young players for 4 month without complaining because an Olympic (gold) medal is the only thing missing for her, but Italy was not a group and there was no chance they could win, she knew Olympics would be a nightmare already before they went there.
- She says Barbolini has a weak character and is too easily influenced by other people, the journalist asked who and she says "the senators, who now are with him in Istanbul", and if Barbolini stays NT coach Piccinini will not return to NT. She hopes that other people will now have courage to speak too, because in NT, uncomfortable people who do not accept the "system" there are made outsiders.
Nice schedule so far, though of course I wouldn't mind even more broadcasts
Two more clips from Dippold-Turnier, one from a local news show also with some scenes from 3rd place match (Hamburg's team is sooo tall!!!) and one shot by a spectator.
